Overview of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" Discussion of Vanity Fair THACKERY AND VANITY FAIR Vanity Fair was a turning point in Thackeray's life and career. A gentleman by birth and education, Thackeray was forced to earn his living by writing because most of his money had been lost in a financial crash. The articles, reviews, essays, and sketches he produced for magazines and newspapers did not provide sufficient income either to support a gentleman's status or to provide for the futures of his two daughters. In addition, writing for a living made his status as a gentleman somewhat tenuous. The serialization of Vanity Fair, which was a financial success, quickly established Thackeray's literary reputation. Thackeray was jubilant, "There is no use denying the matter or blinking it now. I am become a sort of great man in my way--all but at the top of the tree: indeed there if the truth were known and having a great fight up there with Dickens." Though Thackeray's novels never sold at the rate of Dickens's novels (in the tens of thousands), he became financially secure with Vanity Fair.

Also his social status as a gentleman was assured because of his acknowledged genius; he was no longer an amusing, talented hack writer, just one of a crowd of London journalists. CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE TO VANITY FAIR Contemporary reviewers and novelists appreciated the brilliance of the novel. John Forster wrote, "Vanity Fair is the work of a mind, at once accomplished and subtle, which has enjoyed opportunities of observing many and varied circles of society. . . his genteel characters... have a reality about them... They are drawn from actual life, not from books and fancy; and they are presented by means of brief, decisive yet always most discriminative touches" (1848). Charlotte Bronte, whose admiration for his genius was boundless, called him "the legitimate high priest of Truth": The more I read Thackeray's works, the more certain I am that he stands alone--alone in his sagacity, alone in his truth, alone in his feeling (his feeling, though he makes no noise about it, is about the most genuine that ever lived on a printed page), alone in his power, alone in his simplicity, alone in his self-control.

Thackeray is a Titan, so strong that he can afford to perform with calm the most herculean feats; there is the charm and majesty of repose in his greatest efforts; he borrows nothing from fever, his is never the energy of delirium--his energy is sane energy, deliberate energy, thoughtful energy. (1848) George Eliot's praise was more restrained, "I am not conscious of being in any way a disciple of his, unless it constitute discipleship to think him, as I suppose the majority of people with any intellect do, on the whole, the most powerful of living novelists" (1857). Not all reviewers and readers agreed. Some were repelled by his realism and his focus on society's moral corruption. Robert Bell complained: The people who fill up the motley scenes of Vanity Fair, with two or three exceptions, are as vicious and odious as a clever condensation of the vilest qualities can make them. The women are especially detestable. Cunning, low pride, selfishness, envy, malice, and all uncharitableness are scattered amongst them with impartial liberality.

It does not enter into the design of Vanity Fair to qualify these bitter ingredients with a little sweetness now and then; to shew the close neighbourhood of the vices and the virtues as it lies on the map of the human heart, that mixture of good and evil, of weakness and strength, which in infinitely varied proportions, constitutes the compound individual. (1848) An anonymous reviewer wondered, "is it advisable to raise so ruthlessly the veil which hides the rottenness pervading modern society?" (1848). Harriet Martineau could not finish the novel "from the moral disgust it occasions" (1848). From Thackeray's day to the present, Vanity Fair has generally been regarded as a masterpiece and as his best novel. What has changed is the flaw Thackeray, as well as Vanity Fair, is most commonly charged with. Critical readers of his day called him cynical and even depraved; comparable readers today call him sentimental and even cloying. HUMORIST, WRITER AND MORALIST Until the publication of Vanity Fair, Thackeray was known as a humorous writer; he wrote regularly for Punch.

Thackeray regarded humor as doing more than making readers laugh, "the best humour is that which contains most humanity, that which is flavoured throughout with tenderness and kindness." He was compelled to write the truth about what he saw and how he understood what he saw: To describe it otherwise than it seems to me would be falsehood in that calling in which it has pleased heaven to place me; treason to that conscience which says that men are weak; that truth must be told; that faults must be owned; that pardon must be prayed for; and that love reigns supreme over all. There may be wishful thinking in his statement that as the writer "finds, and speaks, and feels the truth best, we regard him, esteem him–sometimes love him." In order to tell the truth, the novelist must "convey as strongly as possible the sentiment of reality." Language should identify exactly, not elevate or exaggerate; for instance, a poker was just that--a poker, not a great red-hot instrument and a coat was only a coat, not an embroidered tunic.

He disliked Dickens's highly emotional outbursts and vivid personification of objects; Thackeray protested that the very trees in Dickens's novels "squint, shiver, leer, grin and smoke pipes." A realist, Thackeray consistently deflated the heroic and the sentimental both in life and in literature. Thackeray saw the writer as serving a necessary function–to raise the consciousness of his readers. Concerned, he asked his mother in a letter, "Who is conscious?" He came to see himself as a Satirical-Moralist, with a dual responsibility--to amuse and to teach, "A few years ago I should have sneered at the idea of setting up as a teacher at all... but I have got to believe in the business, and in my other things since then. And our profession seems to me as serious as the Parson's own." He aimed not only to expose the false values and practices of society and its institutions and to portray the selfish, callous behavior of individuals, but also to affirm the value of truth, justice, and kindness.

This double aim is reflected in his description of himself as satiric and kind: "under the mask satirical there walks about a sentimental gentleman who means not unkindly to any mortal person." Though Thackeray set his novel a generation earlier, Thackeray was really writing about his own society (he even used contemporary clothing in his illustrations for the novel). Thackeray saw how capitalism and imperialism with their emphasis on wealth, material goods, and ostentation had corrupted society and how the inherited social order and institutions, including the aristocracy, the church, the military, and the foreign service, regarded only family, rank, power, and appearance. These values morally crippled and emotionally bankrupted every social class from servants through the middle classes to the aristocracy. High and low, individuals were selfish and incapable of loving.

Well aware of himself as flawed, he identified with the self-centered and foolish characters he portrayed in Vanity Fair; his object in writing the novel was to indicate, in cheerful terms, that we are for the most part an abominably foolish and selfish people "desperately wicked" and all eager after vanities....I want to leave everybody dissatisfied and unhappy at the end of the story–we ought all to be with our own and all other stories. Good God don't I see (in that maybe cracked and warped looking glass in which I am always looking) my own weaknesses wickednesses lusts follies shortcomings?.... We must lift up our voices about these and howl to a congregation of fools: so much as least has been my endeavour. His identification with the fools and the sinners of Vanity Fair could not be stated more clearly. The image of the cracked-mirror provided the basis of the drawing for the frontispiece when the serialized novel came out in book form in 1848. What were some of his flaws?

By temperament, he inclined to be self-indulgent, liked to eat and drink well, and until he lost his money gambled enthusiastically; today, we might, perhaps, say he had a gambling problem. The Bohemian lifestyle and Bohemians had a strong attraction for Thackeray, as he acknowledged: I like Becky in that book. Sometimes I think I have myself some of her tastes. I like what are called Bohemians and fellows of that sort. I have seen all sorts of society--dukes, duchesses, lords, and ladies, authors and actors and painters--and taken altogether I think I like painters the best, and Bohemians generally. As you read the novel, think about whether Thackeray's identification with the characters and perhaps the life of Vanity Fair affects the novel. Does he show a compassion for the follies he describes and for the characters who commit those follies? Is there a sense of connection with them, or does Thackeray adopt a superior stance and look down on them, judging them harshly? Or is Thackeray ambivalent? Is Vanity Fair, as A.E.

Dyson says, "one of the world's most devious novels, devious in its characterization, its irony, its explicit moralising, its exuberance, its tone. Few novels demand more continuing alertness from the reader, or offer more intellectual and moral stimulation in return"? The 100 best novels: No 14 – Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1848) | Books | The Guardian The 100 best novels The 100 best novels: No 14 – Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1848) William Thackeray's masterpiece, set in Regency England, is a bravura performance by a writer at the top of his game William Thackeray: 'Vanity Fair found him at the height of his powers'. Photograph: Hulton Share on Messenger Close Vanity Fair jumps out of this list as a great Victorian novel, written and published deep in the middle of a great age of English fiction.

Indeed, so commanding was Thackeray at the height of his powers (some say he never wrote as well, or as sharply, again) that Charlotte Brontë even dedicated Jane Eyre (no 12 in this list) to the author of Vanity Fair. One hundred years after the publication of Clarissa (no 4 in this series) , Thackeray not only revels in the possibilities of the genre, he even illustrated his own work with some decidedly inferior woodcuts. Vanity Fair was published in serial form (including some memorable cliff-hangers, for instance Becky Sharp's revelation of her marriage to Rawdon Crawley) from January 1847 to June 1848. Thackeray, on top form, cheerfully exploited an ebullient tradition, transcending all his previous efforts as a writer, novels such as The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844). Early drafts of the book, which had the working title "a novel without a hero" lacked the all-important figure of William Dobbin, a thoroughly good and likable character who owes much to Thackeray himself.

"Vanity Fair", a title that came in a eureka moment to the author in bed one night, actually derives from Pilgrim's Progress (no 1 in this series) and refers to the fair set up by the devils Beelzebub and Apollyon in the town of Vanity. Unlike Bunyan, Thackeray was hardly a die-hard Christian, but rather a man who relished a life of pleasure and luxury, and who, on the evidence of his letters, found much of the Bible either ludicrous or distasteful. As a title, however, "Vanity Fair" set the tone of the novel in its depiction of a society, rather as "The Bonfire of the Vanities" did for Tom Wolfe (who also illustrated his own work) in 1987. Thackeray's intention was satirical and realistic. Writing mid-century, he set his masterpiece in Regency England during the Napoleonic wars, intending the lessons of his tale to be applied equally to his own times. In contemporary terms that would be like a modern literary novelist setting their scene during the second world war, or the blitz. The climax of the novel comes with the battle of Waterloo.

Unlike Tolstoy, whose War and Peace was influenced by Vanity Fair, Thackeray was squeamish about military matters, and chose to leave most of the fighting off-stage. This makes the irruptions of violence all the more shocking, as in the death of George Osborne, "lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart" on the field of Waterloo, which occurs almost exactly halfway through the narrative. Thackeray was highly conscious of his audience and repeatedly breaks off from his story to buttonhole and tease his readers ("the present chapter (8), is very mild. Others – but we will not anticipate those"). The tale, however, will not be denied for long. Upwardly mobile Becky Sharp, and her sweet, devoted friend, Amelia Sedley, are perfectly matched by the caddish rake, George Osborne, and clumsy, decent William Dobbin. The social trajectory of each pair gives the narrative an almost perfect symmetry.

The key to the novel's magic, in addition to the delight it takes in the Regency pageant, probably lies in the contrast between scheming Becky, one of fiction's great female protagonists and awkward, dutiful William whose unwavering love for Amelia mirrors Thackeray's own passion for another man's wife. Finally, however, for all its realism, Vanity Fair is a bravura performance by a writer who has found his theme. As the serialisation of the novel that would transform its author's reputation draws to a close, Thackeray himself concluded his tale with a nod to the gaudy theatricality of the whole business: "Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out." A note on the text Vanity Fair, subtitled "A Novel without a Hero", was first serialised in Punch, then published (from the same typesetting) by Bradbury & Evans of Bouverie Street in July 1848. A revised and more definitive text appeared in 1853, without illustrations. Vanity Fair was the first of Thackeray's books to appear under his own name.

As a further sign of his self-confidence, in the introduction to the 1848 edition, dated 28 June, the author acknowledges "the kindness with which it has been received in all the principal towns of England… where it has been most favourably noticed by the respected conductors of the public Press, and by the Nobility and Gentry. He is proud to think that his Puppets have given satisfaction to the very best company in this empire." Vanity Fair by Thackeray, William Makepeace Vanity Fair THACKERAY, William Makepeace London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. FIRST EDITION FIRST ISSUE IN A COSWAY STYLE BINDING. 1 volume, 8-1/4" x 5-1/2", illustrated with engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page, 38 engraved plates, and numerous engravings on steel and wood illustrating the text, all executed by the author, first issue including the suppressed woodcut of the "Marquis of Steyne" on page 336, the heading on page 1 in rustic, and "Mr. Pitt" for "Sir Pitt" on page 453.

Bound in full teal morocco, raised bands, 52 gilt decorated red floral moroco onlys to covers and spine panels, elaborate floral gilt decorated covers and spine, small expert repair to lower front hinge, gilt dentelles, gilt decorated red morocco doublures, red silk moire endpapers, front doublure with a fine portrait under glass on ivory of Thackery, all edges gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without A Hero THACKERAY, William Makepeace London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. First UK Edition. Mixed issue, with "Mr. Pitt" on p.453 line 31, but lacking the suppressed woodcut of Marquis of Steyne, the rustic type heading on p.1, and with the engraved title page dated 1848. This copy bound without the four ad leaves. Includes engraved half-title and ad leaf for The Great Hoggarty Diamond.

Octavo (23cm); publisher's original green cloth, titled in gilt on spine, and decoratively stamped in blind on panels and spine; [i-vii], viii-xvi, [1]-624pp; illus. Spine ends expertly reinforced with matching cloth underlaid, rubbing to the lower board edges, with some board exposure at the cornertips. Faint, scattered foxing to text, but still quite fresh. Spine gilt is notably bright and legible, with the cloth bright and unrubbed; Very Good+. VAN DUZER 231. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without A Hero William Makepeace Thackeray Published by Bradbury and Evans, London; 1848. 8vo. This is an exceptional copy of the First Edition, First Issue of this classic literary novel by Thackeray in a Cosway-style binding. It has all the first edition points, with the 'rustic' Vanity Fair heading to the first page of chapter one; 'Mr Pitt' for 'Sir Pitt' on p. 453; the later suppressed woodcut of the Marquis of Steyne on p. 336.

This lovely book comes with all 38 etched plates, the etched frontispiece and additional title. Internally this book is in Exceptionally Fine condition, tightly bound and with very little spotting or toning to the pages and free of oxidising. The edges are beautifully done in gold gilt. This stunning book is bound in later full crushed red morocco with beautiful gilt detailing, bound for Chas. J. Sawyer, there is gilt lion motif and monogram to the upper cover, front doublure with a central oval hand-painted miniature portrait of Thackeray, mounted behind glass. Unfortunately there is no book binders signature, so we can only presume this is a Cosway-style binding rather than a Cosway binding. There is silk mounted onto the fly leaves, with just a small amount of loss to the front top corner by the spine. The binding has been repaired at the spine, preserving the original compartments. There is some wear to the gutters, the rear gutter in particular, but the binding is still sound with just some minor splitting at the top of the rear edge. there is some slight sunning to the spine.

Overall this stunning book is in Near Fine condition, with just these couple of weaknesses to the binding, but internally in excellent condition. This book presents the rare opportunity to add a beautiful rare first/first of this classic piece to a literary collection. Indeed, any literary firsts collection would be lacking without it. Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero. Thackeray, William Makepeace. Near fine. Illustrated by the author. Literature. Bradbury and Evans. London. 1848. 1st edition. Hardcover. Bound in full tan leather with gilt titles and decoration. All edges gilt. Contents fine with clear and clean pages. Gutters show signs of wear and are delicate but binding remains sound. Rustic heading to Chapter I; suppressed woodcut of Lord Steyne on p.336 and Mr. Pitt as opposed to Lord Pitt on p.453. 38 full page plates by the author and numerous vignettes and other illustrations throughout. Collated and complete. ix, 624pp. Octavo. Booksellers since 1984. VANITY FAIR Thackeray William Makepeace London: Bradbury & Evans, 1849.

A very early issuance. With the author’s 40 illustrations in steel or wood engraving. 8vo, in a Bayntun-Riviere binding of full crushed black morocco, with beautiful intricate blind stamped decorations on the covers surrounded by a gilt border, and with gilt lettering and botanical tooled designs along a paneled spine between gilt-stippled raised bands, gilt inner dentelles and botanic borders on turn-ins and board edges gilt tooled, a.e.g., and with the original cloth covers and spine bound in at end. xvi, 624 + [1] illus. at end. A very fine copy in an extremely attractive fresh and attractive binding. An especially attractive copy of this important work of 19th century literature. Thackeray used the novel’s Napoleonic era and its setting within a worldly society to mirror the society of his own with great success. Though prior being well published as both a writer and illustrator, largely in Punch, this was Thackeray’s first novel of significance. It cemented his position within the canon of 19th century writers and still remains his most famous and popular.

Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray sp;- London - Bradbury and Evans, 1848 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. First edition.. A first edition, first issue of Thackeray's classic nineteenth-century novel. With illustrations of steel and wood by the author. With engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page, 38 plates, and many vignettes and illuminated letters throughout the text. Contains the issue points associated with the first issue: heading on page one in rustic lettering, the later-suppressed Marquis of Steyne woodcut on page 336, Mr Pitt for Sir Pitt on page 453. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863) was an English novelist, celebrated for his satirical tales of early nineteenth-century Britain. Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is the most acclaimed of these works, hailed by contemporary critics as a literary treasure and still considered a classic today. It originally appeared as a serial before its publication in this form in 1848. Collated complete. Condition: In a half calf binding by Bayntun of Bath with attractive gilt decoration to spine.

Some rubbing to joints and a little to spine, otherwise externally very smart. Internallygenerally firmly bound, although strained to last few pages. Foxing to plates and scattered light spotting throughout. Neat copperplate signature tofront end-page, below which a later ink inscription,and to head of page one. Very small closed tear to page. Further ink signature to front free-endpaper. Overall: VERY GOOD. If you want to keep an eye on what is coming up, just add us to yourfavourites list!. VANITY FAIR THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. Cover and spine designs in blind-stamp. Finely rebacked with original spine laid-down. Spine gilt title bright. Several small pieces of old spine are missing.. Covers rubbed with several spots on rear cover. Yellow endpapers have been repaired at the hinges front and back. Green notice tipped-in at front advertising the new work by Thackeray, "Pendennis". The "Great Hoggarty Diamond" page is present preceding the engraved frontispiece and title-page. The date 1848 is on both title-pages.

Some peripheral browning and foxing to plates, off-setting onto adjacent pages. Forty plates including the frontispiece. Numerous text illustrations, and chapter first-letter embellishments, done on steel and wood by the author. This copy is an early issue of the first edition. It does not have the rustic type on p.1 nor the suppressed plate at p.336. "Mr. Pitt" is present at p.453. See Van Duzer 231. 624pp.. First Edition, Early Issue. Blue Cloth. Light Edge Wear/No Jacket. Thick Octavo. VANITY FAIR: A NOVEL WITHOUT A HERO Thackeray, William Makepeace (novel); Thayer, Lee (cover design) New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1893. First One-Volume Edition by Crowell. Octavo (21cm); emerald green cloth, with titling and peacock feather motif stamped in gilt and blue on spine and front cover; top edge gilt; engraved frontispiece and illustrated title page, with 16 plates of illustrations; vi, 342pp.

Decorative gift bookplate (unfilled) of the Harriet Brown Hatton Memorial Circulating Library to front endpaper, with partial ownership label of Mr. Horace B. Hatton applied upside down to rear pastedown; base of spine gently nudged, else a tight, Fine copy, with the decorative elements bright and unrubbed. Handsome edition of Thackeray's well-loved satirical novel of early 19th-century British society. Basis for numerous film adaptations, most recently Mira Nair's 2004 film starring Reese Witherspoon. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray London- Hodder and Stoughton, 1913 Book. VERY GOOD INDEED. Hardcover. A stunningly illustrated copy of Thackeray's classic novel. Featuringa frontispiece and numerous further colour plates by Lewis Baumer, all tipped in and with captioned paper guards. Includingan illustrated title andendpapers, and a Cosway-style binding. With a dedicated monastic bookplate to the front pastedown.

Lewis Christopher Edward Baumer (August 8, 1870 October 25, 1963) was a British caricaturist who worked for more than fifty years for the British magazine Punch, and illustrated dozens of early twentieth-century books. Here, he expertly captures thecharacteristics of Thackeray's satirical society. Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Herowas first published in 184748, satirising society in early 19th-century Britain. The book's title comes from John Bunyan's allegorical story The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time of Thackeray's novel. Vanity fair refers to a stop along the pilgrim's progress: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent man's sinful attachment to worldly things. Like many novels of the time, Vanity Fair was published as a serial before being sold in book form; it was printed in 20 monthly parts between January 1847 and July 1848.

The parts resembled pamphlets, and contained the text of several chapters between outer pages of steel-plate engravings and advertising. Woodcut engravings, which could be set along with normal moveable type, appeared within the text. The same engraved illustration appeared on the canary-yellow cover of each monthly part; this colour became Thackeray's signature (as a light blue-green was Dickens'), allowing passers-by to notice a new Thackeray number in a bookstall from a distance. Vanity Fair was the first work that Thackeray published under his own name, and was extremely well received at the time. The original monthly numbers and later bound version featured Thackeray's own illustrations. Thackeray meant the book to be not only entertaining but also instructive, an intention demonstrated through the book's narration and through Thackeray's private correspondence, and even before the last part of the serial was published, critics hailed the work as a literary treasure. Condition: In a decorative cloth binding. Externally very good, just some shelfwear. Internally, firmly bound. Beautifully bright and clean throughout, with just some light spotting to the endpapers and textblock edge. A particularly enjoyable way to enjoy this marvellous novel.

Overall: VERY GOOD INDEED.. VANITY FAIR THACKERAY, William Makepeace Oxford: Limited Editions Club, 1931. Hardcover. Slight offsetting to endpapers. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrappers and a Fair slipcase, intact but for the top and bottom edges, one of which is lacking. John Austen. Two large quarto volumes (7-1/2" x 11-3/8") bound in half magenta linen, gold-stamped, and pattern-paper sides with decorations by Albert Rutherston. Introduction by G. K. Chesterton. Illustrated with lithographs by John Austen colored by hand by Daniel Jacomet. Copy #7 of 1500 SIGNED by the illustrator on the colophon page. Low limitation numbers are quite uncommon for Limited Edition Club volumes, especially from the early years, as is the Monthly Letter, which is laid in. Vanity Fair Thackeray, William Makepeace New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1899. Becky Sharp Edition. With many illustrations of the Comedy as Produced by Mrs. Fiske and Her Company of Players. 1 vols. 8vo.

Original pumpkin cloth, lettered in red and black. Some soiling of cloth, light marginal browning of cloth. Becky Sharp Edition. With many illustrations of the Comedy as Produced by Mrs. Fiske and Her Company of Players. 1 vols. 8vo. Inscribed to Mrs. William Merritt Chase. Inscribed on the free endpaper (now affixed to pastedown) "With dearest love to Pansy from Becky & Minnie." Minnie Maddern Fiske produced the comedy performed on 12 September 1899 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York and performed as Becky Sharp. Tyrone Power was the Marquis of Steyne, Robert V. Ferguson was Sir Pitt Crawley and Maurice Barrymore was Rawdon Crawley. The illustrations for this edition were supplied by Mrs. Fiske and show the actors in costume. "Pansy" was Mrs. William Merritt Chase. WITH TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED by Mrs. Fiske to Mr. Smith regarding the production of a play by Miss De Forrest laid in the back. William Makepeace Thackeray - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.

William Makepeace Thackeray Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (1811ï¿½1863), author, illustrator, and editor wrote Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero (1848); "It was an advance, and as such, perhaps, some ladies of indisputable correctness and gentility will condemn the action as immodest; but, you see, poor dear Rebecca had all this work to do for herself. If a person is too poor to keep a servant, though ever so elegant, he must sweep his own rooms: if a dear girl has no dear Mamma to settle matters with the young man, she must do it for herself. And oh, what a mercy it is that these women do not exercise their powers oftener! We can't resist them, if they do. Let them show ever so little inclination, and men go down on their knees at once: old or ugly, it is all the same. And this I set down as a positive truth. A woman with fair opportunities, and without an absolute hump, may marry whom she likes.

Only let us be thankful that the darlings are like the beasts of the field, and don't know their own power. They would overcome us entirely if they did."--Ch. 4 Satirising upper middle-class Victorian London, its societal mores, decadence and corruption, Thackeray contrasts the life of amoral social climbing Becky Sharp, who can cry or blush at will, with the sheltered and naive Amelia Sedley's. His mordant wit and fierce critique of his times caused much controversy but in the end his novel was a best-seller and remains in print today. It has also been adapted for television and the screen numerous times, with a black and white silent version in 1911. William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811, son of Richmond Thackeray, an Indian Civil Servant, and his wife Anne (nï¿½e Becher). Just a few years later his father died, his mother remarried, and the shy and retreating young William was sent to England where he would deal with the harsh realities of isolation and bullying at Charterhouse, a private school in London.

He then went on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, then studied law at the Middle Temple school, but soon after went to Paris to unsuccessfully try his hand at painting. It was in Paris that he met and married Isabella Shawe (1816ï¿½1893) in 1836, with whom he would have two surviving daughters, Anne Isabella (b.1837) [who would become a writer] and Harriet Marian `Minnie' (b.1840). Back in England and suffering massive financial losses, Thackeray started writing articles, reviews, essays and sketches as a journalist. Travel articles about France such as his Paris Sketch Book (1840) and The Yellowplush Correspondence (1841) were among his first efforts appearing in various magazines and journals including Fraser's, Punch, and The Times. He also illustrated many of his own works. After the birth of Harriet, Isabella started on what was to be, until her death, numerous bouts of depression, an extensive search for a cure, and ultimately a slow spiral to insanity. She would live apart from William, rarely seeing him or her daughters.

Ever the doting father, Thackeray remained close to his daughters all his life. Anne was his secretary for a while and they both lived with him at his house in London before marrying. The disintegration of his marriage however would have a profound effect on his life and be reflected in the characters of his novels, including the loveless marriage between Rachel and Frank Castlewood in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852) and its sequel The Virginians (1857). Haunting the Literary Clubs of London including the Garrick Club, Thackeray also travelled the Mediterranean, A Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846) the result. Book of Snobs (1848) and Vanity Fair (1848) followed soon after, but it was not until The History of Pendennis (1850), his semi-autobiographical novel that Thackeray's success as a humorist was confirmed.

He then embarked on a series of lectures published as English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1851) and Four Georges (1860), based on the Hanoverian Kings, from his tours of the United States in 1852-53 and 1855-56. In 1860 Thackeray became editor of the monthly literary journal Cornhill Magazine, but died suddenly three years later, in 1863, at the age of fifty two. He lies buried beside his mother in the Victorian Garden cemetery Kensal Green in London, England. Charles Dickens wrote a glowing tribute to him in Cornhill Magazine. Other titles include; The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844), Newcomes (1853), The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. (1856), Lovel the Widower (1860), The Adventures of Philip (1860-62), and Denis Duval (1864). Vanity Fair Movie Review & Film Summary (2004) | Roger Ebert I had thought her a mere social climber. I see now she's a mountaineer.

Advertisement So says one of her fascinated observers as Becky Sharp transforms herself from the impoverished orphan of an alcoholic painter into an adornment of the middle, if not the upper, reaches of the British aristocracy. "Vanity Fair" makes her a little more likeable than she was in the 1848 novel -- but then I always liked Becky anyway, because she so admirably tried to obey her cynical strategies and yet so helplessly allowed herself to be misled by her heart. Reese Witherspoon reflects both of those qualities effortlessly in this new film by Mira Nair , and no wonder, for isn't there a little of Elle Woods, her character in " Legally Blonde ," at work here? Becky to be sure never goes through a phase when anyone thinks her stupid, but she does use her sexuality to advantage, plays men at their own game and scores about as well as possible given the uneven 19th century playing field. When William Makepeace Thackeray wrote his funny and quietly savage novel, there were few career prospects for an educated young woman who did not fancy prostitution. She could become a governess, a teacher, a servant, a religious or a wife.

The only male profession open to her was writing, which she could practice without the permission or license of men; that accounts for such as Jane Austen , the Brontes, George Eliot, Mrs. Gaskell and others who, as Virginia Woolf imagined them, wrote their masterpieces in a corner of the parlor while after-dinner chatter surrounded them. Advertisement Becky Sharp could probably have written a great novel, and certainly inspired one; Thackeray sees her dilemma and her behavior without sentiment, in a novel that must have surprised its first readers with its realism. We meet Becky just as she's leaving finishing school, where the French she learned from her Parisian mother won her a berth as a boarder and tutor. She made one good friend there: Amelia Sedley ( Romola Garai ), and now proposes to visit the Sedley family for a few days on her way to her first job, as a governess for the down-at-heels Sir Pitt Crawley ( Bob Hoskins ). But working as a governess is not Becky's life goal. She wants to marry well, and since she has neither fortune nor title it would be best if her husband brought both of those attributes into the marriage. Does this make her an evil woman?

Not at all; romantic love is a modern and untrustworthy motive for marriage, and in England and India (where both Thackeray and Mira Nair were born), marriage strategies have always involved family connections and financial possibilities. Amelia likes Becky (she is the only one at school who did, Thackeray observes) and thinks it would be nice if Becky married her brother Joseph (Tony Maudsley). Amelia's own fiance, Capt. George Osborne ( Jonathan Rhys-Meyers ), discourages this plan, convincing the weak-willed Joseph that Becky is little better than a beggar with vague family irregularities, and would not adorn the Sedley household. Advertisement So Becky goes to Crawley Hall, where she mistakes the unshaven Sir Pitt for a servant. Servants, money and provisions seem in short supply in the Crawley family, but Becky makes one important conquest; Sir Pitt's rich maiden sister Matilde (played with magnificent biting wit by Eileen Atkins ) admires her pluck and becomes her friend and protector -- up to a point. That point is reached when Becky secretly marries her nephew Rawley Crawley ( James Purefoy ).

As a second son, Rawley will not inherit the title or house, and as a gambler can't live within his allowance, so this marriage gives Becky a liaison with a good family but not the benefits. Some of the film's best moments come when characters administer verbal flayings to one another. Matilde is unforgiving when she is crossed. But the most astonishing dialogue comes from a character named Lord Steyne ( Gabriel Byrne ), who Becky meets for the first time when she's a girl in her father's studio. Steyne fancies a portrait of Becky's mother; her father prices it at 3 guineas, but Becky insists on 10, putting on a good show of sentimental attachment to her departed parent. Now, many years later, Steyne crosses Becky's path again. She reminds him of their first meeting. It occurs to him that having purchased a portrait of the parent, he might purchase the original of the daughter.

This sets up a dinner-table scene in the Steyne household at which the lord verbally destroys every member of his family, not sparing the rich mulatto heiress from the Caribbean who married his son for his title even though "the whole world knows he's an idiot." The peculiar quality of "Vanity Fair," which sets it aside from the Austen adaptations such as "Sense and Sensibility" and " Pride and Prejudice ," is that it's not about very nice people. That makes them much more interesting. There are some decent blokes in the story, but on the fringes: William Dobbin ( Rhys Ifans ), for example, who persists in loving Amelia even though she falls for George, a thoroughgoing bounder. Joseph is a good sort, too. Advertisement And for that matter, how evil is Lord Steyn, really? He and Becky meet again after her husband, Rawley, has lost everything at the gambling tables and the bailiff is literally moving their furniture out of the house. Steyn pays off their debts. This would not have been considered by anybody as an act of selfless charity.

Of course he expects Becky to show her gratitude, although oddly enough she shows it more frankly in the 1828 novel than in the 2004 movie; its PG-13 rating no doubt inspired Nair and her writers to suggest to their tender young audiences that Becky can be friendly and grateful without, as the saying goes, Steyn having sex with that young woman. In the real world, the furniture would have been back on the sidewalk. Is the Indian-born Mira Nair a strange choice to adapt what some think is the best English novel of the 19th century? Not at all. She has an instinctive feel for the comic possibilities of marital alliances, as she showed in her wonderful " Monsoon Wedding " (2001). And she brings to the movie an awareness of the role India played in the English imagination; in the 19th century, hardly a well-born family lacked relatives serving or living in India, and wasn't it Orwell who said the two nations deserved each other, because they shared the same love of eccentricity?

Popular Blog Posts Vanity Fair by Thackeray - AbeBooks Vanity Fair by Thackeray Results (1 - 30) of 4932 1 ISBN 10: 0143034448 ISBN 13: 9780143034445 Used PAPERBACK ISBN 10: 0143034448 ISBN 13: 9780143034445 Used PAPERBACK ISBN 10: 0143034448 ISBN 13: 9780143034445 New PAPERBACK ISBN 10: 0143034448 ISBN 13: 9780143034445 New PAPERBACK ISBN 10: 0140620850 ISBN 13: 9780140620856 Used Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: n/a, 2010. Paperback. Book Condition: Used; Very Good.

Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Bookseller Inventory # CHL1447895 ISBN 10: 0582038340 ISBN 13: 9780582038349 Used Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Longman, 1989. Paperback. Book Condition: Used; Acceptable. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. The book is perfectly readable and fit for use, although it shows signs of previous ownership. The spine is likely creased and the cover scuffed or slightly torn. Textbooks will typically have an amount of underlining and/or highlighting, as well as notes. If this book is over 5 years old, then please expect the pages to be yellowing or to have age spots. Bookseller Inventory # CHL1138384

Question: Who wrote the 1848 novel 'Vanity Fair’?
Answer: William Makepeace Thackeray